Martha Karua, when she walked out of a public gathering after President Moi refused to allow the opposition to speak [PHOTO: Karua IG]


Martha Karua has turned 69, marking her birthday by looking back at the decades that shaped her life, from her early years as a magistrate and single mother to her battles for democracy and constitutional reform during the era of former President Daniel arap Moi.
Karua, who was born on September 22, 1957, in Kirinyaga County, has been using her social media pages throughout September to reflect on different stages of her life ahead of her birthday.
On Tuesday, as she marked the day, she wrote: “It’s official: today marks the last year of my sixties, I am sixty-nine, and I thank God for it and pray for more.”
The birthday reflection follows a series of posts in which Karua has revisited her 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, recalling the experiences that shaped her approach to public service, justice and politics.
Her memories of her 20s and 30s take her back to a period when Kenya was under one-party rule and challenging the government came with significant risks.
“At 24, I became a magistrate, a responsibility and a title that felt significant at that age, even as I was still figuring out life beyond the courtroom,” she wrote.
By her late 20s, Karua had risen to Senior Resident Magistrate while raising a young family as a single mother, with support from her sister and wider family.
Looking back, she wondered how she managed to balance motherhood, her career and opposition to the political system of the time.
“I wonder how that young woman managed to hold it all together while fighting against a dictatorship and remaining hopeful about the future I saw for myself, my country and family,” she said.
Her 30s, she recalled, became the years when she began testing the limits of the legal system.
“When I turned 30, in 1987, I left the judiciary and started my own law firm,” she wrote.
Karua said she took on cases that tested the limits of the time, including defending human rights activists such as Koigi wa Wamwere in his treason trial.
She also became involved in the struggle for women’s rights and the expansion of multiparty democracy.
At 35, she won the Gichugu parliamentary seat, overcoming what she described as established and well-funded candidates without the political machinery, money or “political godfathers” that often made the difference.
“That victory was significant to me because it taught me you do not always need to begin with much to begin something that matters,” she wrote.
Her reflections on her 40s and 50s take her back to some of the most defining moments of the Moi era and the country’s eventual transition towards constitutional reform.Martha Karua (Centre) [PHOTO: Karua IG]
Karua recalled one particular moment at 43, when she walked out of a public gathering after Moi refused to allow the opposition to speak.
“In a country where many feared challenging power, I raised my fist, the symbol of the Democratic Party as a remi nder that democracy will not be silenced,” she wrote.
She would later join the Cabinet as Minister for Water, a portfolio she said she had not expected but embraced and transformed.
Karua subsequently served as Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, where she said her commitment to constitutionalism became even more central.
“I believed the law must apply equally to everyone, however powerful, and that public office must come with accountability,” she wrote.
She described the journey towards a new Constitution as difficult, involving disagreements, negotiations and compromise.
“There were many times I sat across the table from people I deeply disagreed with,” she recalled, adding that she learnt that building a country required working with different people, finding common ground and putting Kenya above political differences.
In her early 50s, Karua said she resigned from government when she felt she could no longer effectively deliver the mandate entrusted to her.
“For me, integrity has never been about holding office; it has been about honouring purpose,” she said.
At 55, she offered herself for the presidency but did not win.
“I had learned by then that service is bigger than any one position, title or election,” she wrote.
Karua has often been described as the “Iron Lady”, a label she revisited in her birthday reflections.
“Iron, to me, is not about being hard. It is about refusing to bend where justice is concerned,” she said.Martha Karua (Centre) [PHOTO: Karua IG]
Her career has spanned the judiciary, legal practice and national politics. She founded Martha Karua & Company Advocates in 1987 and went on to serve for nearly two decades as Gichugu MP.
She later became a leading voice on democratic reforms, women’s rights and accountable governance. She is now the leader of the People’s Liberation Party and has declared her intention to seek the presidency.
But on her 69th birthday, Karua’s focus has been less on the office she seeks and more on the journey that brought her here.
“To those in your 40s and 50s: let experience make you wiser, your principles steadier, and your purpose bigger than any title you will ever hold,” she wrote.